As plastic pollution increasingly threatens terrestrial, riverine, and marine ecosystems across Southeast Asia, empowering youth through early environmental literacy has become a cornerstone of long-term ecological stewardship.
Co-created by WWF-Indonesia and Dongeng Paman Gery under the Plastic Smart Cities program, Cerita untuk Bumi is an illustrated environmental storybook authored by twenty children to inspire youth-led action against plastic waste.
Available in: Indonesian
The collection comprises five main stories: Terima Kasih Tabyboo!, featuring an alien entity that converts absorbed waste into oxygen while demanding human responsibility; Mimi Menolong Nina, which details a cat and owner rescuing a turtle entangled in riverine plastic pollution; Robot 5R, where two friends invent a waste-sorting machine out of plastic scrap to clean up their coastal community; Kotak Bekal Arif, following a student whose visit to the TPST Bantar Gebang landfill inspires him to adopt reusable lunch boxes; and Sampah Masa Depan, a time-travel tale where marine life from a polluted 2050 journey back to 1980 to clean the ocean before microplastic accumulation reaches critical levels. Complemented by interactive puzzles and reflective logs on waste classifications (Organic, Inorganic, and B3 hazardous waste) and 5R methodologies (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Repair), the handbook reinforces that small everyday habit changes by children can drive significant collective environmental impact.
